1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing medium and a method of manufacturing the same, and a printing method. More particularly, the invention relates to a printing medium and a method of manufacturing the same, and a printing method which are adaptable to an image recording or printing apparatus which holds printing media in forming images and requires such margins (non-print areas) to secure high precision medium in feeding the printing which is required to secure a high definition printing.
2. Background
Various devices and apparatuses for printing characters and images (sometimes referred to collectively as images) have been developed and put into practical use. Of the printing techniques thus far developed, the most advanced is the ink jet printing technique.
The quality of the image produced using the ink jet printing technique is inferior to that of the image produced by the conventional photographic printing technique. However, recently, the ink jet printing devices and the printing media used therein have been remarkably improved to produce a printed image of considerably high image quality.
Given recent improvements in the quality of the picture produced by the ink jet printing technique, attention has focused on the following five advantages unique to the ink jet printing technique:
(1) A complicated process for visualizing the image data is not required because the image is printed using ink directly on the printing medium. PA0 (2) The ink jet printing technique uses ink droplets and, therefore, does not result in direct contact or impact with the printing head. PA0 (3) Ink is deposited only on the necessary parts of the printing medium resulting in highly efficient utilization. Furthermore, the image printed on a printing medium, even if the medium is conventional paper, has a more professional look. PA0 (4) The recurring cost for ink and printing media, e.g., paper, is extremely low, making the ink jet printing system economical. PA0 (5) Finally, it is possible to deposit droplets of colored inks on the printing medium in a superimposed manner resulting in an image relatively high in quality.
In addition to the above listed advantages, the ink jet printing technique operates quickly. For these reasons, the application of this type of printing technique has become increasingly popular in printing activities ranging from business to home use. The market desires further improvements of the ink jet printer technology.
The ink jet based printer forms an image while moving a printing medium of a given size, such as greeting card or Christmas card, at a given speed. In the printer, a printing medium is held by a transporting roller which is disposed facing a print head by proper fixing means. In this state, the printing medium is intermittently transported in a vertical direction, and the print head is horizontally moved for printing when the medium transportation is stopped.
In the widely used ink jet based printer, non-print areas (areas on the printing medium having no print) or spaces are present in the leading, trailing and side portions of the printing medium having varying dimension depending on the type of the printing medium transporting means. Given the present stage of printer technology, these non-print areas are essential to firmly support and transport the printing medium within the printer.
In most printers, it is impossible to set the size of the leading non-print area to be equal to that of the trailing non-print area. In the image forming, recording or printing device widely used now, the trailing non-print area, which is unavoidable, is set at approximately 10 to 15 mm.
In order to ensure a higher quality look of the image on the printing medium, large non-print areas or non-print areas having different dimensions should be avoided. Particularly, in pictures printed by recent advanced ink jet based printing, image forming, or recording devices having a print quality comparable to photographs, such defects as a result of having these non-print areas decreases the valve of the high quality pictures.